Stoner/psych, two long instrumental songs. I'm torn between feeling like a fuckwit for missing this year (I saw the good reviews in blogs, just totally spaced on checking it out) and being delighted to have found something new and great.

^played with these guys last night. Their set was a wildly hallucinatory mix of drone-metal and sampled film dialogue (mostly from obv sources: Network, og Willy Wonka, etc) but now am listening to Transcendental Hamburger and there's a bit of that (along with a modicum of slap bass) but it is much more straightforward stripped down stoner metal. No guitars; only bass and drums. Digging it quite a bit. Hella nice guys, too.

Taking their name from Samuel R. Delany's apocalyptic sci-fi classic, Chicago-based Dhalgren's sound is rich and textured, with all four members contributing to a complex base of synth drone and processed vocals, under which a driving rhythm section occasionally appears to propel the music from dense ambience to ecstatic motorik synth rock.

couldn't say it better myself, super recommended if that description appeals to you

I was roommates with one of the dudes in this band while they were writing/recording it, so I always felt weird about talking about it on ILM, but what great chaotic Unwound/Meneguar-influenced stuff, with trumpets and pitch-shifted riffs and big choruses. Still love it, still wish they'd ever play out.

Aww man, loved this band back in the day. It's an old record (2002), but apparently it's getting release on vinyl and is available on Bandcamp.

Ashrae Fax, from Greensboro NC. A lot of Cocteau Twins in their sound (a LOT, singer has a similar voice for sure) but done really well: textured synths, guitars, and programmed drums etc. Really love this record:http://ashraefax.bandcamp.com/album/static-crash

My friend has been running a twitter account called audiocloud based around a very similar idea to this thread - he personally curates a selection of bandcamp links to freely available independent music that he's enjoying, laying it out nicely using the album art embedded in each tweet and the twitter 'favourites' facility. Although he doesn't use ILX, I have shown him this thread for interest & inspiration and because it fitted with what he'd been doing for a while, and thought that you folks might enjoy his take on it too...